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Iggy Azalea pushes ‘Great Escape’ tour back to the fall

Iggy Azalea arrives at the 57th Grammy Awards last month at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Iggy Azalea arrives at the 57th Grammy Awards last month at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)
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For Iggy Azalea, the show won’t go on, at least not for another several months.

The Grammy-nominated pop-rapper is postponing her first arena tour, Def Jam announced Tuesday.

The label said the tour was being rescheduled “due to tour production delays,” but the announcement arrived after the Wrap reported that the show was in trouble because of lack of promotion and conflict between Azalea and management (which a rep denied in Billboard). A source told The Times the tour was long in jeopardy and the singer told her team weeks ago it was being pushed back.

“To accommodate for creative team availability and tour production plans, it was determined that the tour will not be ready this Spring,” the label said in a statement. “It is extremely important to Iggy that she delivers the show she envisaged to share with her fans and that requires more time in development.”

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Azalea’s The Great Escape tour was supposed to launch in April, with a stop at Staples Center on April 21, but it will now begin in September. The show will now hit Staples Center on Sept. 25.

In December, Azalea announced she was embarking on the arena tour and had tapped pop comeback kid Nick Jonas, buzzy alt-R&B singer Tinashé and DJ Wizz Kid as support, with tickets going on sale soon after. Replacement openers are expected to be announced soon.

The announcement comes on the heels of a massive year for the rapper, who broke out with a handful of pop hits, including the inescapable anthem “Fancy” and “Black Widow.”

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But the tour’s postponement adds to the many hurdles that have popped up as her profile rose.

Her debut album, “The New Classic,” wasn’t a hit with critics or commercially, and rap fans have labeled her as “too pop” to be considered authentic.

Even more, critics have continuously accused the Australian-born rapper of pilfering the nuances of her flow from Southern hip-hop stylings, and fans of the genre seethed at her Grammy nomination for rap album (a multiple nominee, she went home empty-handed).

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Azalea has gotten called out by J. Cole, admonished by Azealia Banks, ridiculed by Snoop Dogg, given a public history lesson on hip-hop by Q-Tip and been the center of countless thinkpieces on white privilege and cultural appropriation.

After frequently defending herself on Twitter, Azalea told fans she was giving the popular social network site a break. She handed both her Twitter and Instagram accounts to her management.

Pushing the tour back to the fall gives Azalea plenty of time to hit the studio, which she should. At this point one would expect she has a lot to say.

Tickets for the originally scheduled tour dates will be honored on their city’s rescheduled date. However shows in Baltimore, Las Vegas and Sacramento will not be rescheduled and fans will receive refunds.

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